Ana Hein is an undergraduate student at Emerson College pursuing a BFA in Creative Writing with minors in Comedy Writing and Performance and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her work has been featured in Concrete, Gauge, Emerson College’s Undergraduate Students for Publishing blog, Black Swan, and the Appley 2018 Rising Stars Collection and has won multiple Editor’s Choice Awards from Teen Ink Magazine. She can usually be found buying too many books, singing loudly, wearing red lipstick, complaining about the weather, staring into the void, and generally being very dramatic.

the caterpillar i grow in
an emptied Welch’s bottle never leaves its chrysalis,
caught between phases.
my daddy leaves us, moves out and on.
and the appendage does not grow,
stays mythical, a mystery.

and just like that -
i do not believe in magic.

Three Hearts

​

Retreat to these waters where it’s okay to be a pretty nigga.

Ritual: hit the Gods Gift and let smoke meld with rising steam,

decide between 00s Anthony and 90s Mariah (Mariah wins),

piss baby oil into tub and watch lava lamp bubbles coagulate,

dash of Rosemary for good measure. Bow low slowly, gripping

basin edges in a squat, feel eyelids droop closed and sing-song voice

cascade off of tiles laden with condensation, sway unashamed

to love ballads. Press thumbs into soles of scaly feet, pumice the

flakes, massage suction cups in crooks of limbs, wash skunk from

the arm’s trenches, sink lower, the neck’s nape on cool porcelain,

licorice locs floating tentacles. Crack a clandestine grin, take

pleasure as the strangest creature in the sea, born of 3 hearts.

Rinse & repeat, rinse & retreat to the cave.

michal "mj" jones is a black queer, and non-binary writer, activist, educator, and musician living in Oakland, CA. a curious interdisciplinary writer of essay, poetry and fiction, mj's work has been featured at Foglifter Press, Everyday Feminism, Black Girl Dangerous, The Body Is Not An Apology, and Wear Your Voice Magazine. mj is a recipient of the 2019 San Francisco Writer's Grotto Fellowship, is a VONA Fellow and a 2-time selected participant of the Kearny Street Workshop's Interdisciplinary Writers Lab.